Millwall are confident home advantage will help when they face Aston Villa in tonight’s FA Cup fourth round tie at The Den.

The south Londoners are currently
ninth in the Championship, five points behind the play-off places and with just
one defeat in 2013 so far – at home to Burnley – do not consider themselves
underdogs against the Premier League strugglers.

Although Aston Villa’s confidence
will be low following their shock League Cup semi-final defeat to League Two
Bradford, Millwall manager Kenny Jackett is wary of the Premier League side’s
attacking threat.

“Cristian Benteke is a very good
signing and added to the likes of N’Zogbia, Agbonlahor, Bent, Weimann,
whichever players they choose they have some attacking options,” the Millwall
boss said.

“We want to handle their
attacking threat and then hopefully going forward have enough to exploit any
inexperience or lack of confidence that they may have.”.

The Den is a never an easy place
to play and Millwall believe their fans can make the difference. Something
Captain Danny Shittu knows well, having joined Queens Park Rangers from
Millwall before returning this season.

“This is not the place you want
to come to after [Villa’s defeat]…these fans are going to make the Villa
players really feel it,” said Shittu.

The game is being played tonight
due to a demonstration over staff cuts at Lewisham Hospital tomorrow and Shittu
believes that will be an advantage for Millwall. He said: “It’s good for us
because obviously they played on Tuesday so I’m sure they won’t be happy
they’re playing on a Friday.”

When asked about marking Benteke
the strong Belgian striker, Shittu joked: “I’m a physical player as well so I
look forward to matches like this and playing against players like that.”

“I believe in the whole of the
football world there’s not really that many people that can be as physical as
me striker-wise so they might be getting away with it week-in-week-out but I’ll
try and show them a thing or two when they come here.”.

Part of Villa’s undoing against
League Two Bradford was their weakness defending set pieces, something that has
not gone unnoticed in south London. “They are a bit weak on set pieces
and it’s something we hope to capitalise on,” said Shittu.

Millwall will be without Nathan
Tyson, Scott Malone and Shane Lowry (all injured) for the game. Darius
Henderson missed training this morning after being given permission to hold
transfer talks with Nottingham Forest, prompting Jackett to admit: “We want to
be attacking the top half of this league and to do that we do need to
strengthen.”